Speaks about his goals, one of which is to improve morale

When he took over the St. Augustine Beach Police Department, new Chief Robert Hardwick made improving morale one of his top priorities at an agency that has been battered by internal problems and public scrutiny.

The City of St. Augustine Beach Commission selected Hardwick, a longtime St. Augustine-area resident and military combat veteran, as chief in November from among 200 applicants.

On Friday, Hardwick spoke about his goals, priorities and what he called a “humbling” career that led him from corrections officer to the chief of police.

“It’s surreal still,” he said from behind his desk at the department’s offices on A1A South.

The search for a new chief began after then-Chief Richard Hedges resigned last year during an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into allegations of ethical, legal and procedural infractions. The investigation stemmed from allegations made by some officers on the force.

Hedges resigned but was cleared after the investigation.

After the commission selected him in November, Hardwick visited with officers to make sure he had their support. He also assured them that the investigation would have no impact on their futures at the department.

“I made it very clear to my officers that that is over and done with,” Hardwick said. “I want it to go away.”

“I told all my officers that when I come in here Jan. 7, which was my swearing-in day, that everybody gets a fair shake, everybody gets a fair start.

“I’m all about integrity.”

The Commission told Hardwick to produce an assessment of the police department by July 1, including recommendations on policies, procedures, practices, a mission statement and staffing models.

As he has been working on his assessment, Hardwick also has been working to change the mood, to give people a sense that things are different now.

Hardwick and his officers now wear standard uniforms, he’s removed a reserved parking space once set aside for the chief and he’s rearranged how the offices are set up.

Hardwick usually spends 12 to 15 hours a day working and has been meeting with officers and people in the community who are curious about will happen with their police department.

The staff has changed somewhat since he arrived. Officers had the option of leaving with a severance package when Hardwick came on, and four people chose to go, two taking the severance, two taking jobs with the Sheriff’s Office.

Hardwick has hired one person, Lt. Jim Parker, who formerly worked at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

His reception at the agency and in the community has been the best of his career, he said. Police department staff were there to welcome him at his swearing-in. Since then, officers at the department have shown their motivation for the agency, the community and for him, he said.

“They’ve really stepped it up for me and showed me that they want to be there,” he said.

Hardwick said the excitement about being police chief is similar to the feeling he had at the beginning of his career in law enforcement.

“I’m ... in love again,” he said. “There’s so much to do. I wish I could do it all today.”

Local ties

Hardwick, 41, grew up in the St. Augustine area and lives with his wife of 22 years, Kendell, and his son Brett, 16, in St. Augustine Beach. He has another son, Cole, 21, who studies at Florida State University. He has lived at the beach since 2000.

His family is his biggest motivator, he said. For fun, he enjoys hunting and fishing with the family.

Every year, when and where it’s legal, they gather up and go on an alligator hunt, he said.

He pulled out a picture of his wife kneeling next to an alligator they hunted in a private pond last year.

Hardwick attended Catholic schools as a child, including Cathedral Parish School and St. Joseph Academy. He met his wife at St. Joe.

He has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Flagler College and is finishing a master’s degree in administration from Barry University.

A military background

Military and law enforcement careers are not a big part of his family, but in high school he started to develop a love for the uniform, he said.

“I’m the oddball out,” he said. “I think it’s the uniform. I’ve always been intrigued by the soldier uniform.”

Hardwick’s military career took him through two tours of Iraq. He joined the U.S. Army in 1989 and was stationed at Fort Bragg and was in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He was deployed during Operation Desert Storm. After he got back, he joined the National Guard, and in 2003 he was deployed to the Middle East to invade Iraq.

He is a staff sergeant in the National Guard, assigned to the Regional Training Institute at Camp Blanding.

Beginning in corrections

Hardwick’s first job in law enforcement came as a corrections officer at a prison in Daytona Beach. He worked in the confinement area where he dealt with problem prisoners and sharpened his people skills.

“It was an eye-opening experience because I saw where I never wanted to be,” he said. “It makes you appreciate your freedom.”

After that, he started working for the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office as a corrections officer, and he held a variety of duties including working security at the courthouse and doing some booking. That’s where his career “started taking off.”

He began working locally in law enforcement in 1996 when he got a job as a patrol officer with the St. Augustine Police Department. He said he fell in love with the job, being on patrol and dealing with people.

“It’s being in the neighborhood with the windows down,” he said, “Being a part of what’s going on and talking to the people.”

Hardwick became a detective at the police department and worked on a grant project that tracked career criminals in St. Johns County. In the late 1990s, he got a liaison position with 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

When he came back from deployment in the Middle East in 2004, he started working in the homicide investigations unit at the State Attorney’s Office and in 2008 was promoted to assistant chief over the homicide investigations and special prosecutions units for the four counties in the district.

Goals for the future

Hardwick came into his position ready to make changes.

Though he is still analyzing the agency, he has several goals already.

He wants to restore a family atmosphere to the department. He wants to improve the evidence room and eventually make the department earn Florida law enforcement accreditation.

“It’s going to be an accredited professional agency,” he said.

He also wants the beach community to know that the department is going to be there for them.

“Nothing is going to change in our service,” Hardwick said. “Our service is going to be provided, regardless.”

The list of priorities for the department that Hardwick keeps at his desk represents the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, but Hardwick said he is excited about shaping the department.

“The challenge is what I want. If it’s not a challenge, I don’t want to come to work,” he said.

“I want to be able to say in a year ... two years from now, this is what we did, this is where we came, this is where we’ve come from.”

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Positive upbeat article. Sounds like the new Chief hit the ground running and is indeed affecting the department and community in a good way. Things are looking up and it is great seeing a story about the Beach Police Department not filled with accusations, half truths and acrimony.

Nothing against this excited YOUNG law enforcement professonal, however it seems that he has BIG ideas for a soon to be 5-7 officer force. Or does he, as I would predict, have plans to EXPAND rather than reduce....a further "career advancing opportunity" (Sheriff perhaps?)

The idea to hatchet the SAB police force came from commissioners, not the policemen themselves. I believe its a safe assumption that the motivation was to rid themselves of squeaky wheels and a potentially volatile 'insiders go outside' situation.

Hopefully, this man can institute a regime that gets things under control and returns normalcy to the SAB Police, at full staffing levels.

The idea that we could essentially eliminate our dedicated department and not lose service coverage was asinine, didn't pass the smell test and naturally, opposed by most everyone (but perhaps criminals).

Good luck to this man. Keep a close watch on the bars on weekends, mostly Dunes Cracker, Sunset Grille, Panamas. Also, there's a local SAB crotch-rocketeer who can't seem to stay under 80. Pretty sure he lives somewhere between 12th and 16th streets. Wouldn't mind the department teaching him a lesson on throttle control with some expensive paperwork.